Pentecost 9
12 July 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
W. Gregory Pope
A PRAYER FOR YOUR LIFE
Colossians 1.9-14
For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to God, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of God’s own beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
One of the many wonderful gifts God has given us is the privilege to pray. Prayer not only offers the opportunity to talk with God about the concerns of our lives. But more significantly, prayer deepens the bond of our very being to the God who made us, the God in whose love we are being redeemed through Jesus Christ. In other words, prayer is not just honest conversation with God but silent communion with God. Prayer is required nourishment for the spiritual life. What oxygen is to our physical life, prayer is to our spiritual lives.
Some popular books on prayer tell us to name what we want and continue to pray until we get it. But that seems to me to be just another way of making prayer all about us and it finds no support in Scripture. The goal of prayer is not to get something we want, but to become the person God wants us to be, the person, deep down, we long to be. So I wonder: How many of us desire to transform the way we pray so that prayer can transform us?
The prayer we read earlier from the letter to the Colossians is a transforming prayer. It is full of petitions that rest completely within the will of God. No need to conclude this prayer by saying, “Lord, if it be your will.” We can be sure that every petition of this prayer stands firmly within God’s will for our lives. It is a prayer you can pray confidently for your life or for someone else.
Before we look at the specific petitions within this prayer, I want to make mention of some characteristics of this prayer that can inform all our praying. First of all: There is a continuous nature to this prayer. Paul says, Since the day we heard of your faith in Christ, we have not ceased praying for you . . . It is in continually offering ourselves and others in this prayer that God can do the work of transformation in our lives. This is also a prayer for others. We can pray this prayer for ourselves, and should pray it for ourselves. But Paul is always teaching us to pray for one another. This is a prayer parents can pray for their children. This is most importantly a God-centered prayer. These are not self-centered requests: “Gimme, gimme, gimme!” “I want, I want, I want!” These are petitions focused on what God wants to do in our lives. This is a
focused prayer. There are particular requests here that give a needed focus to our praying. And the overarching focus of this prayer is for personal spiritual development. We pray for many things. But Paul is always teaching us to pray for spiritual growth for ourselves and for one another.
So keeping in mind these important characteristics of biblical prayer, let’s look at the requests made in this prayer – requests we can make for ourselves and others in order to nurture a Christlike life:
The primary request of this prayer is the primary purpose of all prayer – and that is to grow in the knowledge of God and to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Who among us has not prayed for guidance and direction at some point in our lives? We are often faced with difficult decisions: the possibility of a career change, how you can best serve God as empty nesters, how to care for aging parents, how to be cared for as an aging person, or maybe you’re considering marriage to this person you find yourself in love with.
To be honest, there are times when we don’t want to know God’s will. Right? We’re afraid of what it might require of us.
And there are many situations in our lives where God gives us the freedom to choose, where there’s no one way that is God’s will, no predetermined path set out for us. But as we are making decisions freely we pray for the ability to discern what is best.
At our best moments, deep down, we want to know where God desires to lead us and what decisions God wants us to make. One of the best things we can do as we seek to understand God’s will is to grow in our knowledge of who God is.
When we come to know deeply and intimately the God revealed in Jesus Christ as the God of love and mercy, justice and compassion, grace and forgiveness, then we are better able to discern God’s will. Because of who we believe God to be we learn to ask in given situations: What is the loving thing to do here? What is the merciful path? What is just? What is compassionate? What is gracious?
To grow in our knowledge of who God is better enables us to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. To be “filled” with something is to be controlled by that something. When someone is filled with anger they are controlled by anger. To be filled with God’s Spirit is to be controlled by God’s Spirit. To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will is to be controlled by that knowledge.
In order for our actions and our choices to be in accordance with God’s will requires spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we gain such wisdom and understanding by growing in the knowledge of God and being filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Who among us doesn’t need to pray for wisdom and understanding? In the letter of James we read: If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.
There are many things that we desire to know. And we ought to seek knowledge. There’s nothing attractive about ignorance. Ignorance can actually be dangerous. Preachers and politicians often take advantage of the ignorance of others. But think for just a moment about what you seek to know. Perhaps there are websites and books, magazines and podcasts, that relate to your work or a hobby of yours, and you take the time to read them because that’s what interests you and because you want to be your best at what you do.
But can we ask ourselves what it is we need to know about the most? I think we know the answer to that question. So then let me ask you: How often do you purposefully seek to learn more about God? Do you know God better than you did when you first became a Christian? I’m
not talking about more facts about the Bible. I’m talking about knowing more about who God is and what God is like and how to know when God is speaking to you and leading you.
To grow in the knowledge of God is at the heart of prayer. It is to pray, “O God, I want to know you. I want to know the desires of your heart.” Is it your honest prayer to grow in the knowledge of God?
This is one of the main reasons we are engaging in this three-year spiritual formation project Streams of Living Water: Becoming a Reservoir. We are seeking to discover ways of growing in the knowledge of God so that we can lead lives pleasing to God.
To grow in the knowledge of God and to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, changes the way we live. We are called to lead a life pleasing to God. In fact, knowing grows in the doing. So the second petition of this prayer is to lead lives fully pleasing to God. To continually pray this prayer is to be reminded who it is we must ultimately please.
How many times does the difficulty of our decision making involve trying to please other people? This prayer frees us from that prison – if what we want most is to please God. When Jesus is Lord of our lives, nothing should be pleasing to us unless it is first pleasing to God. The bottom line of our decision making should simply be: What does God want? What will be pleasing to God? And we pray toward that end. Because it really does not matter who is pleased or displeased with what we do if God is not pleased.
Paul says that a life fully pleasing to God will be worthy of Christ. To lead a life worthy of Christ is to live your life in a way that honors who Christ is and what Christ stands for. It is to live in the way of Jesus – the way of love and sacrifice, compassion and peace.
This is what Paul means when he prays that we bear fruit in every good work. And this is the place in our praying where we are forced to examine what we are doing with our lives and to look at the kind of fruit our lives are producing.
A good place to start is with the fruit of the Spirit Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatians. When we are growing in our knowledge of God and filled with the knowledge of God’s will, leading a life worthy of Christ, fully pleasing to God, our lives will bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The important thing to note is that we do not produce the fruit. That is the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. And so we offer a third petition: to be strengthened with the power of God. Listen to the repetition in Paul’s prayer: “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power.”
We need God’s strength to do God’s will. We need God’s power to live lives pleasing to God. We need God’s strength to endure everything with patience. Could anyone here use a prayer for endurance and patience?
One important way to find ourselves strengthened with endurance and patience is through the act of gratitude. So this prayer concludes not so much with another petition as with an act: to joyfully give thanks to God. May we never close our prayers without giving thanks to God for the good gifts that are ours. In fact, gratitude is a wonderful place to begin our prayers. While it may sound odd, gratitude is deeply empowering. We can patiently endure in the face of overwhelming opposition if our lives are immersed in gratitude.
What is there to be thankful for? Paul says in this very prayer you can give thanks to God because: You have been rescued from the powers of darkness and granted an inheritance in the kingdom of God. You have been redeemed. Your sins have been forgiven. We do not have to be pawns to the dark powers of this world. We no longer have to live controlled by the death-dealing powers of sin and guilt. By God’s grace, through our redemption and forgiveness made
known in Jesus Christ, we are set free to live in the light of God’s love. How can we not give thanks!
So may I conclude by asking you some personal questions? Do you truly want to grow in your knowledge of God and be filled with the knowledge of God’s will? Do you want spiritual wisdom and understanding? Do you want to live a life that is pleasing to God, that honors Christ, that bears the fruit of God’s Spirit? Do you want to live in a strength greater than your own? Do you want to live in the power of God? Do you want to live a grateful life?
If so, I honestly do not know a better place to start than with the continual praying of this focused God-centered prayer. I do not know of any other prayer in scripture that leads us into spiritual growth and Christlike transformation as does this prayer.
Perhaps you would memorize this prayer or put it in your own words and begin to pray it daily. You could even begin right now by taking a few moments of silence and praying this prayer for yourself. I’ve put the text in the form of a prayer inside your bulletin.
Let us take a moment and pray this prayer for ourselves in the silence: Transforming God, I pray to grow in the knowledge of who you are. I long to be filled with the knowledge of your will. Grant me spiritual wisdom and understanding so that I may lead my life worthy of Christ, fully pleasing to you, bearing fruit in every good work. Make me strong with all the strength that comes from Your glorious power. Prepare me to endure all things with patience. Teach me to always give you thanks with joy – for enabling me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light, for rescuing me from the power of darkness, for transferring me into the kingdom of Your own beloved Son, for my redemption, for the forgiveness of my sins – through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.